


Dumpster Boy and Garbage Girl

by ViciousRhythm



Series: Reylo trope coverage [1]
Category: Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Alternate Universe - High School, Arguing, F/M, Fluff, Loss of Virginity, Now With Added Porn!, ch4 is for the wickedly wonderful week of reylo flashfic challenge, if you like argu-flirting this is definitely for you, if you like shitty high school aus this is for you, now with added car blow jobs
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2016-01-18
Updated: 2016-06-10
Packaged: 2018-05-14 16:39:46
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 4
Words: 16,055
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5750473
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ViciousRhythm/pseuds/ViciousRhythm
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>The Reylo high school au that nobody asked for, wherein there are arguments, dumpsters, and Finn questioning Rey's sanity.</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. It's Not Meet-Cute

**Author's Note:**

> Inspired by this pic on tumblr: http://verauko.tumblr.com/post/137238627010/kylo-and-rey-highschool-au-a-little-ooc-but-who

There is a boy sitting in front of the dumpster, and Rey is hesitant to disturb him for a few reasons. One, he’s dressed head to toe in black clothing and frowning at his book with the kind of intensity Rey would be hesitant to interrupt at any time. Two, Rey has the vague recollection that he’s the boy who got suspended for beating the ever-living crap out of another student. Then, there’s also the fact that Rey is pretty sure most people would think it very weird if a girl asked them to move away from the dumpster so she could go diving into it.

Thing is, the auto shop just dumped a bunch of stuff yesterday and Rey knows it hasn’t been carted off to the landfill yet, and she wants to scavenge for scraps before it’s gone. She’s fairly certain there’s at least an exhaust pipe in there she can use. What’s his face is just going to have to let her in the dumpster.

“Hey!” Rey calls ahead, hoping maybe if she gives him warning and presents a confident front he’ll just…go away. “I need you to move!”

He looks up from his book, frown turning into an all-out glower before he goes back to reading, lounging against the damn dumpster like he belongs there.

“You lost, girl?”

Rey stops to his right, crossing her arms and glaring at the guy. Who hangs out reading against a dumpster, anyway? Not that she’s one to judge, since she’s planning on jumping _into_ it. Still.

“Are _you_ lost?” she shoots back. “Wouldn’t a library or something be better for reading?”

He glances at her again, this time actually seeing her, it seems. He gives her a visual once-over and then lets something halfway between a smirk and a sneer cross his face.

“I like it out here,” he says. “What’s it to you?”

Rey shuffles, cocking one hip like she always does when she’s gearing up for a fight. Fine. Let him think she’s weird. _He’s_ weird.

“I need to get into the dumpster,” she snaps.

He blinks at her for a second, then looks like he’s about to laugh at her.

“I’m looking for materials, okay?” she almost shouts. “And your dumb ass is in my way.”

He does laugh then, a quiet thing, but definitely laughing at her. He closes his book though, and stands, so whatever. Standing, he’s much taller than Rey, broad across the shoulders like Finn, but narrow waisted with long legs. If Rey were the kind of girl to be intimidated by some boy, it would be this one. As it is, she watches him brush off his clothes and focuses on his ripped jeans and how his hoodie swallows him, and thinks he’s probably not all that scary.

“Fine, garbage girl,” he says, gathering his books and starting to walk away. “I hope you find what you’re looking for.”

Rey glares at his retreating back, and when he’s about ten feet away, shouts, “My name is Rey!”

He turns without pausing his stride, walking backward for a moment as he calls back, “I’m Ben.”

-

Ben Solo is an asshole. He knows it, and he doesn’t make any real effort to hide it either. His friends are all assholes too, some worse than others, so he figures at least he’s found his place in life. That’s not to say he _likes_ his friends. They’re actually pretty awful, but so is he, so Ben tries not to judge. Besides, Hux still hangs out with him and Phasma even after Ben punched his face in, so that’s friendship, right?

So Ben isn’t a stranger to having at least a few people aware of his existence, but the garbage girl is weirding him out.

Her name is Rey and he keeps catching her watching him. It’s doubly weird because if anything, he should be keeping an eye on her. Which he’s definitely not. He can just feel her eyes on him all the time, so he keeps looking. She’s the one who yelled at him so she could climb into a trashcan in the first place.

But let it not be said Ben Solo doesn’t pay attention. By prodding Phasma for her seemingly endless information on everyone at school, Ben learns that Rey hangs around the art rooms, building sculptures out of scraps. She’s almost always wearing something over her arms to protect against the cuts and burns her art projects bring, and has yet to be seen wearing anything other than a pair of blue converse. She hangs around with two guys – Finn and Poe. Finn, Ben knows from when they were younger, before Finn revealed himself to be both a goddamn crybaby and a snitch. Poe Dameron is someone Ben knows _of_ , but hasn’t ever met. He’s the captain of some team or other, basketball, if Ben remembers right. He’s also dating Finn, and in possession of the affections of about half the school. Ben personally thinks Poe is a short, cocky pain in the ass, and Finn hasn’t stopped being a crybaby snitch. So, really, Rey has terrible taste in people and pastimes.

Which begs the question, what the hell is she doing watching him? Ben hasn’t spoken to Finn in years, so it can’t be that, and he’s sure one random interaction by the dumpster shouldn’t result in him getting a stalker. He just can’t figure out what her deal is. He’s just about resolved to let it go and dismiss it as Rey having a strange fascination that will pass, when she corners him in the halls.

“Are you stalking me?” she demands out of fucking nowhere, leaning at him like she’s going to intimidate him from four inches below his chin.

“What the hell,” is all that leaves him. _She’s_ the one who can’t keep her eyes off _him_.

“You’ve been watching me all week,” she says, “and it’s freaking me out.”

“Are you kidding me?” Ben demands. “You’re the one stalking me! Am I supposed to just not notice?”

Rey takes a step back, crossing her arms again. She really is a very strange mix of things. Her head comes up to just his shoulder, and he’d guess she weighs something like a hundred pounds soaking wet, but he doesn’t doubt she’d do her damnedest to kick his ass if it was called for. For an artist, she’s so aggressive, not at all the dramatic caricatures of artists he’s had in his head.

“Alright,” he says when she just keeps staring at him, unimpressed. “I’ve been doing it too, but don’t even pretend you haven’t been keeping an eye on me all week.”

Rey doesn’t quite blush, but she does get a bit more color to her pretty abruptly. Ben makes the snap decision that he likes it.

“Did you want to do something about that?” he asks, because, well, fuck it. “It’d probably be easier to keep a watchful eye if we were alone.”

“Are you-?” Rey cocks her head back, wrinkling her nose. “Are you hitting on me?”

“Well.” Ben shrugs expansively and leans against the lockers she’d back him up against. “You’ve got me in this compromising position and all. It’ll give a man ideas.”

Rey brings her hand up almost like she’s going to punch him, and Ben grins. Strange she may be, but Rey is _fun_. At the very least, fun to get riled up. And that _does_ give him ideas. He’s only human, after all, and they say teenagers really can’t control their hormones, so who can blame him?

“You’re disgusting,” Rey throws out before turning on her heel.

“So is that a no?” he asks the back of her head.

Rey flips him the bird over her shoulder and keeps walking, and Ben stands there watching her ass walk away until she turns a corner.

-

“He asked you _out_?”

“Isn’t he way older than you?”

“He’s hot.”

“He’s _deranged._ ”

Telling Finn and Poe about what happened with Ben didn’t seem like a possibly bad decision until she learned that Finn thinks Ben is completely unhinged, while Poe is bent on insisting Rey should go for it. They disagree so rarely, it’s kind of fascinating to watch. Poe is all smiles, and half of his comments seem aimed just at picking at Finn. Finn is dead serious, however.

“You can’t give him an inch, Rey,” Finn insists. “He’s the kind of guy who’ll take a mile and never feel bad about it.”

“I’m fairly sure Rey could handle a mile if it was given,” Poe says, immediately taking a drink from his can of Coke and avoiding his boyfriend’s accusatory glare.

“Look,” Finn says. “I knew him when we were younger, and he hasn’t changed at all. Everybody knows he’s violent and unpredictable.”

“And an unrepentant bastard,” Rey supplies. “I know.”

Finn eyes her for a moment before sighing and dropping his head into his hands.

“You’re thinking about it,” he says, despairing. “Rey, don’t let the bad boy thing be…a _thing_ , please.”

“It’s not a bad boy thing,” she says, a little defensively. Because maybe it’s a little the bad boy thing. But mostly it’s that Rey thinks she could get in a verbal sparring match with Ben and enjoy it whether she wins or loses. There’s something about him that gets under her skin, and she hasn’t wiggled him out yet.

She also hasn’t spoken to him since she cornered him about the stalking thing. Which he was definitely doing. He even admitted it. A little. And then that weird comment happened, and now Rey can’t stop thinking about it. Thinking about what they would even _do_ if they were alone together. She lets Finn and Poe’s conversation drag her out of that particular thought post haste.

“Finn, you don’t have a leg to stand on with dating a dashing, rebellious young man.” Poe shakes out his hair, and Finn rolls his eyes at him.

“I’d hardly call the very popular captain of the basketball team, beloved by Coach Organa, a ‘rebellious’ sort,” Rey chips in.

“ _Thank_ you,” Finn says. “I’d never go for a guy like Ben Solo. The implication is offensive, frankly, I’m offended.”

Rey can see from where she’s sitting that Poe has moved to hold onto Finn’s hand under the table, and is probably stroking his fingers over it like he does when he wants Finn back on his good side. It’s such a small thing, but it makes Rey think about how nice it would be to have someone whose touch itself is a comfort, and her chest aches a little. She can’t see that sort of thing happening with Ben, and if that’s what she wants, maybe it’s best if she just give up on that possible path.

Eventually, the topic drops without Rey having declared a decision about it one way or the other. It’s in the back of her mind though, while Poe tries to negotiate his way into getting Finn onto a motorcycle, and through bitching about her and Finn’s chemistry teacher and his wild incompetence. It’s just a whisper, the small thought of ‘what if?’

Finn is the one who brings it up again, after class, when they’re walking home together.

“So,” he starts, along with a heavy sigh. “Poe may have pointed out that I can hold a grudge.”

Rey snorts and gets a look from him in return, but he goes on anyway.

“The point is,” Finn pushes on. “If you want to give it a shot with Ben, it’s none of my business. Maybe he’s stopped being a terrible person and is just…shy or something. But whatever you do, Rey, take care of yourself. I don’t want to see you get mixed up in bad stuff.”

She stops and turns to hug him, because Finn really is a great friend. She’s known him for years since he moved in next door, and for all the world, Rey has no idea what she did to deserve someone who cares so much about her, expecting nothing in return.

“Thanks, Finn.” Her hands stay on his shoulders for a moment, just smiling at him. “You know I wouldn’t do something stupid over a boy though, right? I’m not you.”

Finn splutters at her, looking so annoyed Rey has to laugh as she starts walking again, not waiting for him to catch up.

“I can’t believe you would -!”

“Hey,” Rey interrupts. “I’m not the one who sabotaged a whole basketball team for a pretty face.”

“That wasn’t on _purpose_ and you know it!” Finn is pointing his finger at her all j’acccuse, and Rey just laughs it off. They all know everything turned out fine, and Finn didn’t _mean_ to hijack a win for their basketball team on Poe’s behalf.  But it’s still fun to remind him of it simply for the reaction.

-

Finn starts to regret everything about ten minutes into lunch the next day, namely that he ever shared a sandbox with a boy named Ben, and that Finn was dumb enough to think maybe he’d changed.

“What the fuck is wrong with you?” Ben hisses at him, an uncomfortably close distance from Finn’s face. They're outside of Finn’s English classroom, where he’d gone back to get the notebook he left under his desk before lunch, and Ben has a hand dug uncomfortably into Finn’s shirt, holding him against the doorframe so it digs into his back. Ben’s other hand is curled into a fist that’s shaking just slightly.

It’s been almost nine years since Finn’s been punched by Ben, but he really doesn’t want a repeat of the sensation. Ben’s much bigger now, and Finn didn’t even _do_ anything, not that he had the first time, but _really._ Finn hasn’t even spoken to the guy since then. He thought they were on the solid ground of mutual distaste and ignorance of each other.

“What’s wrong with _you_?” Finn replies, and instantly regrets it. Ben’s face darkens immediately.

“If you’re cheating on your stupid ass boyfriend, that’s none of my business,” Ben snaps. “But stay away from Rey.”

Finn’s eyes go wide because _what_.

“What,” he says intelligently. “What’re… _what?_ ”

Ben slams him hard against the wall again, and Finn groans when the metal of the doorframe hits him in his lower back.

“Don’t play dumb,” Ben says. “I saw you with her.”

Finn searches his mind to try to figure out what this clearly crazy person thinks he saw, and comes up blank. He knows full well that Ben can and will hit him with something comparable to the force of a semi-truck, but whatever, this is ridiculous.

“I don’t know what you think you saw,” Finn says, “but Rey is my best friend, and if anyone should be told to back off from her, it’s you.”

Ben’s eyes flash, and Finn braces himself for a punch. It never comes. Instead, Ben shoves him inside the open door to the English room and slams it shut behind him. Stumbling over the closest desk, Finn sort of has no idea what just happened.

-

“So your boyfriend assaulted me,” Finn says not even a little bit casually when he finally shows up at lunch.

Poe and Rey both put down their food and glance at each other before looking at Finn.

“Unless he assaulted himself, he’s talking to you, Rey.”

“What happened?” Rey asks as Finn takes his seat, leaning on Poe in a way that’s extraordinarily self-indulgent. Poe puts an arm around him anyway because he’s a gigantic softie.

“Ben Solo decided to throw me against a door, accuse me of cheating on Poe with you, and then tossed me into a classroom.” Finn starts in on his lunch, blatantly ignoring the way Rey is staring at him, her own food forgotten.

“He _what?_ ”

Finn shrugs. “Didn’t I tell you he’s deranged?”

Rey almost stands up right then and there in furious indignation. How _dare_ he? For one thing, Finn would rather throw himself over a cliff than hurt Poe like that. And for another, what kind of person does he think _she_ is that she’d go along with that?

“Yeah,” Finn goes on. “I guess he saw something that gave him the impression you and I were getting it on and decided to punch me about it.”

“He punched you,” Rey asks flatly.

“Well, no,” Finn starts.

“And you’re sleeping with Rey and didn’t invite _me?_ ” Poe asks in mock indignation. It almost defuses the growing rage Rey is trying to contain.

“ _No_ ,” Finn insists unnecessarily. “But apparently I’m supposed to back off of Rey, or Ben’s gonna throw a fit at me and maybe he will actually punch me this time.” He looks pointedly at Rey. “Which I do not want. So you should get psycho boy straightened out, because I’m not getting punched, and he’s not going to listen to me about us just being friends.”

“Oh, I’ll straighten him out,” Rey says under her breath. She starts packing up her things, shoving her sketchbook back into her bag haphazardly in her rush.

“Wait,” Finn says, “I didn’t mean now. He’s probably still all crazy eyes.”

“No better time,” Rey tells him. “He can’t just go around threatening my friends, especially with no good reason.”

“Rey!” Finn calls as she’s marching off.

“Let her go,” she hears Poe say. “They’ll work it out.”

Oh, it’ll get worked out alright, even if Rey has to kick Ben’s ass from here to next week.

 

-

 

Somehow, Rey knew he would be hanging around the stupid dumpster, but she didn’t really expect him to be beating on it. She hears him before she sees him, the dull thud and crash carrying around the side of the school. He’s just thrown a kick when she catches sight of him, and the whole thing shakes ominously. Rey watches him attack the poor inanimate object for a few seconds, until he throws a punch that she can tell even from where she’s standing had to hurt his hand.

“Stop that,” she snaps at him.

Ben spins, wild-eyed, and she can see his knuckles are bruised if not bleeding. He’s breathing heavily, jaw clenched tight, and Rey braces herself. Yeah, she’s something like a foot shorter and half his size, but Rey is pretty sure she can take him. Douchebag he may be, but Ben Solo seems like the kind of guy who hesitates to actually hit a girl, and Rey spends her free time carting around scrap metal and working with power tools to wrangle them into artwork. She’s got this.

He starts toward her, shoulders lowered and face completely devoid of any emotion, and Rey panics for half a second. Maybe he won’t hold back, and there goes her element of surprise. But he stops when he’s in her personal space, and shoves his hands in his pockets. He’s wearing his stupid ripped jeans again, and now she knows there’ll be blood smears around the pockets from his temper tantrum.

“What’s it to you?” he says, and Rey flashes back to the first time she spoke to him.

Something in her snaps, and her arms uncross so that she can shove him backward.

“You can’t just go around threatening my friends!” she yells. He stumbles back a step, cocky grin slipping. “Where do you get off accusing people of shit they didn’t even _do_ , anyway? Finn is my best friend, and a damn good guy, and he doesn’t deserve your bullshit!”

Ben stares at her with something like surprise for a second before it transforms into contempt.

“That asswipe deserves whatever comes to him,” he shouts back. “He’s a fucking coward, and a backstabber.”

“How dare you!” Rey raises a hand to slap him, but he catches it and tugs her forward by the wrist. When he speaks, he’s practically hissing in her face.

“Because I know,” he says. “I knew him before you ever met him, and you’d do well to remember I’m not some idiot you can push around.”

“No,” Rey says, wrenching her wrist out of his grasp. “You’re some idiot who gets territorial over things that aren’t even _his_. You’re some idiot who wouldn’t know how to treat a person right if your life depended on it.”

He glowers at her, and then says, challengingly, “Fucking try me, garbage girl.”

“My name,” she bites out, “is _Rey_. Use it.”

“Fine. Rey.” Ben’s eyes narrow further and he takes a step forward, forcing her back. “You think I’m such scum, and you’re so righteous here, give me a chance.”

“ _What_?”

“Give me a chance,” he repeats, smiling, and it’s not a kind thing. “Let me take you out and prove to you I know how to treat someone right. Just because you’ve got shit taste in friends doesn’t mean you don’t deserve a chance to prove you’re better than them.”

“I’m _not_ better than them,” Rey defends. “You’re the one who needs to learn a thing or two about behavior. But fine, let’s go. If you can show me you can act like a reasonable human being, maybe, just _maybe_ , I won’t get you suspended for attacking Finn.”

He jerks back, blinking in surprise. “What the fuck.”

“How’s Friday sound, asshat?” Rey asks.

“What the _fuck_ ,” he says more insistently.

“Great,” she says. “Friday it is. You can pick me up at six.”

With that she storms off, not quite knowing what she’s just done, but feeling entirely triumphant when she hears yet another repetition of him saying _what the fuck_ in the most confused tone she’s ever heard.

 

-

 

Really, the only fair way to describe his arrival is that Ben slams into his house. He kicks the door closed behind him and hears his mom yelling to knock it off immediately. He rolls his eyes and mock imitates her while she can’t see or hear him, then continues on his way upstairs, shouting a supremely insincere apology back at her.

Ben’s room is a goddamn mess, is what it is. His backpack becomes lost as soon as he throws it toward the pile of crap that’s masquerading as his closet, and he knows he’ll regret it when he’s blearily trying to find it in the morning, but whatever. He’s pissed, and if he throws anything breakable again this week, his mom will have his head, so the backpack and future Ben will have to suffer.

He flops backward onto his bed, staring daggers at the ceiling with his arms crossed behind his head. He hasn’t been able to stop thinking about Rey all day, for a multitude of reasons. First and foremost, who the hell does she think she is? He didn’t even _do_ anything to fucking Finn. If the guy can’t handle a little rough treatment, that’s his problem. Ben didn’t even hit him, let alone _attack him_ , what the shit. And like hell is Ben getting suspended for fighting again. His mom will have a complete fit if that happens, and Ben might even have to have a stupid heart to heart with his dad. Which would, you know, necessitate him being home for that, and Ben is perfectly cool with the growing absenteeism of his father. Han and Leia just fight when he’s here for too long anyway, and Ben’s going to lose it if he has to hear his mom crying one more time.

So, fuck that. If nothing else, Ben has to make this thing with Rey work if only so she won’t go ratting him out at school.

Then there’s the fact that he _wants_ it to work out. He wasn’t kidding when he sort of hit on her before, even though it was stumbling at best and he wasn’t planning it at all. Rey is this confusing, fiery thing wrapped in scrap metal and bright eyes, and something about her just begs him to get close to her. The part of him that’s an unrepentant ass wants to see what she’d be like if he could get her naked, wants to know if she’d scratch and pull his hair or let go of that tough front and just melt. The part of him that _is_ his mother’s son, and was raised right, wants to know what it’d be like to really talk with her, to get into her head and her heart and find out what makes her tick, what makes her so strong. What kind of force there must be in a girl who defends the people she loves so fiercely and gives no quarter.

“Ben!” His mom’s voice filters up from somewhere near the kitchen and Ben rolls over to face the wall.

“Come down here and talk to your mother! I feel like I never see you anymore!”

“That’s because you don’t!” he shouts back. He doesn’t want to do this with her, not today. Yes, he’s troubled, he knows that. And she’s concerned and ‘just wants him to be happy’. Ben has no idea how to get across to her that he’s not ‘unhappy’; he’s angry, and sick and tired of this tiny town and this tiny family that keeps feeling smaller. The minute he graduates, he’s gone, and Ben knows it’ll break his mom’s heart a little, but he doesn’t think she’ll be surprised.

He can hear her footsteps coming up the stairs, but doesn’t turn to face the door. They stop outside his room and Ben hears his mom sigh.

“Are you okay, honey?”

 _No_ , he thinks, but all he says is, “Yeah, mom, I’m fine, just tired.”

The weight of her sitting down on his bed barely moves him, and Ben has the passing thought that he doesn’t remember when his mom started seeming so much smaller than him. Her hand starts petting through his hair and Ben feels the fight go out of him. He still doesn’t want to look at her, but he already regrets yelling.

“Well, you should get some sleep,” she says, and Ben can tell from her tone she knows he’s lying, but it’s not worth it to push anymore. She’s tried too many times with no reward for it. “Dinner will be in a couple hours, I can come wake you up if you want to take a nap.”

“No,” he mutters at the wall. “I have homework, I’ll be up.”

He doesn’t say anything else, and eventually Leia stands and leaves, saying she’ll call him when food’s ready. Ben stays on his bed until she does, thinking in circles.

By the time he shuffles downstairs to eat, he doesn’t have any part of the Rey problem worked out besides that she’s ruining his life, and maybe, just maybe, it might be good for him.

 

-

 

It’s Thursday when Rey really begins to think she screwed up. All week, Ben has been scowling around the school, not even hiding how he’s been watching her. She’s seen him hanging out near the dumpsters, too, but writing instead of reading. She doesn’t know what he’s so busy working on, but his hand is always moving quickly, almost violently every time she’s seen him. It seems he’s more tense with every passing day, and on Thursday, he bumps into her in the hall and puts a hand on her arm.

Rey looks up at him and sees he’s stuck halfway between angry and peaceful, if that’s possible.

“Wear something nice on Friday,” he says, catching her eye for a second and then skipping away to look out across the hall. “Not, like, fancy. But nice.”

Rey is sure her eyes look like they might be about to pop out of her head.

“O...kay?” she says, unsure if he needs a response.

He nods absently, then lets his loose grip on her arm fall, and keeps walking.

Rey stands in the hall staring at the spot he left for slightly too long before making her way to chemistry class.

“Hey,” she whispers at Finn when she takes her seat next to him. “Can you and Poe be on call on Friday?”

“Sure,” Finn says automatically. “Why?”

Rey hasn’t told them she has a date (oh god, she has a _date_ ) with Ben on Friday, and she hasn’t been able to get around to figuring out why. Maybe because Finn might have a fit. Maybe because Poe will be entirely unable to shut up about it. Either way, she has no idea what’s going to happen on Friday, and Ben’s odd impassive behavior after this week’s brooding has put her on edge.

“I’m going out with Ben on Friday.”

Finn makes an inarticulate noise, and Rey shushes him quickly when their teacher looks over at them. He still has a frustrated look on his face when the teacher finally looks back to the board and Finn starts hissing at her.

“I can’t believe you’re going out with that asshole!” he says under his breath. “Were you not paying attention to the fact that that psycho attacked me for, I don’t know, looking at you? Don’t you think a date with an unhinged person might be a bad idea?”

“That’s why I’m asking you,” she says placating. “I don’t think anything is going to happen, but I’m not stupid. So can you guys be ready to pick me up if I call?”

Finn frowns so hard she thinks it might actually hurt his normally happy face to do so.

“Why can’t your grandpa pick you up?” he asks.

Rey stares hard at him. “If I tell Granddad I’m going out with a guy, and I think I might need an escape strategy, there’s no way he’ll let me out of the house.”

“And you don’t think that means something?” Finn asks pointedly.

Rey breathes out hard through her nose. She’s not looking to argue with Finn, and she knows this might be a bad idea, but Rey has never been the kind to give up on people, Finn should know. She _has_ to do this, if only to prove to herself one way or the other if Ben Solo is just an irritating fascination or something more.

“I don’t care,” is what she tells Finn. “One way or another, I’m doing this. Now can I count on you or not?”

“That’s not fair,” Finn says. “Of course we’re there for you.”

“Good.” Rey turns to actually pay attention to the class then. It’s a minute or so before Finn speaks again, and it’s very quiet.

“Just make sure this is what you want.”

 

-

 

Friday night is the most anxious Ben has ever been. It’s not like he’s never hooked up with a girl before, and he even did what was called dating in middle school once or twice, though it was more like playdates which sometimes ended with a girl kissing his cheek. He hasn’t been invested in a girl like this before though. It took him days to figure out where he was even going to take Rey, and now that it’s come down to it, he’s not at all sure it’s a good idea.

To make matters worse, Ben's father showed up this afternoon. It’s always a great day for his mom when he comes home, but Ben is just waiting for the other shoe to drop. It hurts to watch them be in love when he knows they’ll end up fighting like cats and dogs within the week. Some part of it makes Ben think of him and Rey, as well, and how all they’ve done is swing wildly between fighting and flirting. The pit in his stomach has been steadily growing all afternoon, and now, standing on Rey’s doorstep, it feels like it might swallow him whole.

He rings the doorbell anyway, because Ben Solo does not run away. Avoid and put off, maybe, but he’s watched his has-been dad run all his life and Ben won’t do it.

The man who answers the door is familiar. In fact, after the first moment of disorientation, Ben realizes he’s looking at the man he’s named after and the cold panic he was feeling before multiplies.

“Hello, Ben,” Ben Kenobi says, and he somehow doesn’t sound anything more than mildly surprised. “How can I help you tonight?”

“Um.” Ben immediately starts cursing in his head. “Is Rey home?”

Here he is, standing on a girl’s doorstep in nice pants and a stupid polo shirt, somehow talking to his almost-uncle, who probably thinks he's just as huge a disappointment as the rest of his family does. He hopes to god this is a stress dream of some kind.

“She is,” Kenobi says, still only sounding the slightest bit confused. “Would you like to come in? I can call her for you.”

Rey comes charging forward before Ben can say yes or no, and pushes past Kenobi out the door.

“Thanks, Granddad,” she says in a rush, grabbing Ben by the sleeve and starting toward his car with him. “I’ll be home by curfew.”

“You have a curfew?” Kenobi says somewhere behind them.

Rey pushes Ben toward his car, powerwalking away from her house and ignoring her...grandfather? Ben’s life is so surreal.

They sit in the car for a moment of silence after Ben’s opened the door for her and climbed in himself. It’s awkward, there’s no two ways about it.

“You look nice,” they both say, layered over each other. Ben bursts out laughing after a beat, while Rey puts her head in her hands and groans. It feels like he’s been stressing so hard about this, he almost forgot Rey might be nervous too, and seeing her embarrassed releases that bubble of tension in his chest. They both have no idea what they’re doing.

“This is going to be terrible,” she mutters, and Ben stops laughing.

“No it’s not,” he says, whipping around to look at her fully. “You look great, apparently you don’t have a curfew, and the most awkward part is over, it’s going to be fine.”

Rey gives him a skeptical look, and Ben ignores it, starting the car.

“Which do you like better, Italian or scifi?”

Rey gives him a look that says she has no idea what he’s on about, but answers a bit hesitantly anyway.

“Scifi.”

“Great,” he says, pulling out of the drive. “Movie starts in fifteen minutes, we can get food after.”

Rey shakes her head, laughing softly to herself, and then pulls her phone out.

“Well, that’s rude,” Ben says softly, mostly joking. “Aren’t you supposed to be on a date?”

“Don’t worry about it,” Rey says, pocketing her phone after a moment. “I’m all yours.”

“Are you now?” Ben turns for a half second to raise an eyebrow at her, and is gratified to see Rey flush slightly.

They make it to the theater with a few minutes to spare, and they have a short argument about whether or not Rey will pay for her ticket, which Ben eventually wins by snatching her debit card out of her hand and holding it above her head while he pays. The teller is clearly trying to not laugh at them, but Ben ignores him, choosing to give Rey an absolutely shit-eating grin while he signs the receipt.

The movie is actually very good, a space opera with an appropriate amount of action and drama, and Ben spends a good half of it not paying attention because he’s trying to decide if it would be a good idea to grab Rey’s hand. He decides not to, but he does catch her glancing at his hand where it rests on the armrest once, and can’t stop himself from smirking.

After the movie, Rey is much more animated, and her nerves seem to have calmed. They argue about whether or not the bad guy will get a redemption in the sequel, and praise the characters and fight scenes, and Ben somehow ends up admitting his knowledge of fencing when they start discussing the final fight. Rey laughs at him about it, and Ben almost gets his back up defensively, but Rey puts a hand on his shoulder and says, “Maybe you can teach me sometime.” And Ben gets a new sort of bubble growing under his sternum.

He concedes the point over dinner and let’s Rey pay for her half of the food after they spend an hour at the restaurant he chose. It’s halfway between casual and formal, filled with people so that they have to raise their voices a bit to hold a conversation. Rey eats like she thinks someone is going to steal her food, and when Ben comments on it, she glares at him and shoves half a breadstick into her mouth, which he supposes was meant to be defiant, but just makes him think severely inappropriate thoughts.

He really is trying to be a gentlemen, partially to prove a point, so he only makes a few innuendos and holds doors for her and when they get back to her house around ten, he walks her to her door and dithers about whether he’s supposed to kiss her.

He wants to. Rey did dress nicely, in the first dress he’s ever seen her in, something sand-colored that swirls around her legs just above the knee, with her hair pulled up in a slight variation of the three sloppy buns she normally has it in. She’s been smiling more as the night goes on, and Ben has been good. He hasn’t touched her in any way that’s less than polite, has enjoyed her company and gotten a mental workout debating with her, and he’d really like to kiss her. But Ben _hasn’t_ dated anyone in a long time, and he’s not sure how it goes. Hooking up with people in strangers’ houses is so far from what’s happening here that he’s keenly aware he’s out of his depth.

It’s a good thing Rey isn’t the kind of girl who waits forever, because he doesn’t have to worry about it long once they reach her doorstep. Rey only gives him a moment of staring at her, baffled, before she huffs and grabs him by the collar and pulls him down to kiss her. She holds him there, grinning at him where his eyes are almost crossed trying to look at her from so close.

“Kiss me, Ben,” she says, and he does.

 

-

 

Rey closes the door softly behind her, hoping Granddad is asleep and won’t wake up. He turns in early most nights, but it’s not so late it would be unreasonable for him to be awake. Rey definitely doesn’t want to report on her date though.

She’s not that lucky.

Granddad is sitting up in the kitchen, eating a bowl of cereal and working on a crossword when she walks past on her way to her bedroom.

“How did it go?” he asks in a voice that carries in a way that says he expects an answer.

Rey pauses in the doorway, hoping to god she only feels like anyone can see where Ben’s hands were on her.

“It went well,” Rey says. “We saw a movie and had dinner.”

Granddad beckons for her to take a seat and looks up from his crossword. Rey sits, and finds him smiling softly at her. Somehow, his approval is more unnerving than if he’d been disagreeable.

“You know, I used to know Ben Solo,” he muses. “Bright boy, but he was always a bit emotional.”

Rey blinks at him, unable to figure if she’s meant to reply.

“You don’t let him give you any crap, darling,” he says after a second. “That boy may need something good in his life to remind him he’s good too.”

Slowly, Rey smiles. Granddad may be a little odd, but he’s always been understanding. She misses her parents so often, but Rey is grateful she’s with her grandfather and that he’s always let her follow her own path.

“Thanks, Granddad,” Rey says, standing. She leans over to kiss his cheek, and he squeezes her hand, bidding her goodnight.

Rey’s phone chimes with a text alert when she’s getting out of the bathroom, and it’s from Finn.

_So???_

_I’m alive._ She sends back. _And i think i might have another date?_

Finn’s response takes only a few seconds to come through.

_Whatever, crazy. Poe’s gonna give him the talk._

 

-

 

Prior to just now, Ben hasn’t spoken to Poe Dameron. Having the guy give him some version of the shovel speech is extremely strange.

“You get me, Solo?” Poe finishes, eyebrows raised.

“Did you just call me ‘Solo’?” Ben asked, somewhat disbelieving.

“That’s not really the point, is it, _Solo_?” Poe says. “I just want to know you’re aware Rey is a class act and she’s got friends looking out for her.”

Ben considers smacking Poe upside the head, because of course he realizes Rey is too good for him, but what the hell is he supposed to do about it? It’s not like that’s stopped Ben from wanting her. And she’s decided she wants him, too, and Ben really doesn’t think Rey can be stopped from getting what she wants. So it’s out of his hands.

“Yeah, whatever,” he says, moving around Poe to continue on his way to class. Poe jogs beside him, apparently not done.

“What,” Ben snaps, stopping again.

Poe grins. “We’re gonna wreck your shit if you fuck with her,” he says cheerfully, giving Ben a two fingered saluted as he finally leaves.

Ben resists the urge to make a face or throw something at the back of his head. Poe isn’t worth his time. He’s sort of resigned himself to dealing with the idiot twins, however. Rey appears to carry them along in her wake, and Ben doesn’t really see himself giving up on whatever is happening with her without a fight, so he supposes he’ll have to deal.

Hux is in his next class, and Ben knocks his backpack against his shoulder as he swings it to the ground, totally on purpose. Hux sneers at him while he’s getting out a pencil and notebook.

“I hear you’ve got yourself a girlfriend,” he says, tone mocking.

Ben doesn’t technically have a girlfriend yet, but he’s working on it.


	2. Parking

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Parking: The act of parking your car in a well hidden area and getting it on with the other person.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Y'all asked for a continuation, and so here it is. It has been approximately one thousand years since I've written anything sexy, so please bear with me.

If there is one thing Ben learned from his father, it’s how to hit and run with women. As far as Ben knows, Han has never been anything but faithful to Leia, but he’s heard stories from when his dad was younger, and most of them involve some sort of conquest and immediate bail out. Ben didn’t exactly _mean_ to follow in his father’s footsteps, god forbid, but somehow, in this, he did. He’s had enough one night stands that he stopped counting, and he can only remember the names of a couple of the girls, though to be fair, he only _learned_ the names of a couple girls before sleeping with them in the first place.

He has no concept that survived past middle school of what to do with a girl who isn’t already aware they’re going to fuck and then forget each other. He sure as hell has no idea what to do with Rey.

And so, stretched out in the backseat of his car, Rey on top of him, Ben starts freaking out.

“What’s your deal?” Rey demands, sitting up abruptly and staring hard at him.

Ben squirms uncomfortably under her gaze. “Nothing?” he tries.

“Please.” Rey lifts herself all the way upright, still straddling his hips, and Ben almost gives in to the urge to slam his head back against the window. “Like I buy that for a second.”

“Can we just-“ Ben waves his hand around expressively. “Go back to what we were doing? That was fine, right?”

Rey jabs him in the chest. “It was until you seized up. What is your problem?”

Ben tips his head back, regretting for a second that he doesn’t believe in any higher power, because that means he’s got nothing to pray to for strength.

“You’re not…” Rey trails off, and her face goes gentle. “Are we moving too fast?”

Ben can’t help it, he laughs, loud and totally ungraceful. He even has to hold onto her waist for support, shoulders shaking with it.

“No, Rey,” he says, when he can get it together. “We’re not going too fast, Christ.”

She doesn’t look best pleased with him.

“I don’t want to go too fast for _you_ ,” he says pointedly.

“What’s that supposed to mean?”

“It means -” Ben sighs and leans forward to rest his forehead on her shoulder. If he were looking, he’d have a great view down her shirt, but he’s slightly preoccupied trying not to do anything that will make her jump out of the car or demand he take her home.

“It means all I ever do is hook up with people, and I want…” He can’t help himself. She’s right there, thighs spread around him, slim and perfect, and his hands slip around her back and down to her ass almost without him thinking about it.

“I don’t want to fuck this up with you, but I want you so damn bad. And fucking you in my car is a shitty thing to do, and I don’t want it to happen like that, and I want to wait until you’re ready, but. Fuck,” he says on a sigh. “You make me crazy, and I don’t know what to do with it.”

Rey’s hands move into his hair, petting for a second before she gets a grip on him and pulls his head up and back. She’s got the same look in her eyes as when she gets on his case for being a bastard to Finn and Poe, or when she’s determined that they’re splitting the bill, Ben Solo, and that’s that.

“Ben. We are not going to have sex in your car,” she says firmly. “That doesn’t mean I don’t want to, at some point. And it certainly doesn’t mean I want you to stop touching me.”

She lets go of his hair and slides her hands down his arms to grip onto his elbows and pull herself forward and further onto him. Ben makes a noise that’s probably hugely unmanly and isn’t even embarrassed about it.

“But can you just enjoy it for that?”

Rey presses her mouth against his slowly, bringing one hand up so that she’s holding onto the side of his head, fingertips at the back of his neck. She’s gotten very good at kissing him in the last few weeks. Ben supposes that’s a big plus in the ‘having a girlfriend’ column. So far, it’s mostly pluses.

They go back to making out in his car, parked down some road in the redwoods where no one is going to bother them. Ben tries not to think about fucking it up, and finds it’s not that hard when Rey takes the initiative to distract him. Ben’s never been a huge fan of kissing, not when there’s more interesting things to do with his mouth or the girl’s, but Rey loves it. She makes these _noises_ too, that shoot straight to Ben’s dick and make him lightheaded.

She lets him put his hands up her shirt, his fingers spreading wide over her lower back while the other hand creeps around her ribcage and just to the edge of her bra. Rey squirms and makes a high-pitched, pleased noise against his mouth when his fingertips drag under the strap across her back, hauling her closer by the smallest margin. He hasn’t seen her without her shirt yet, but he has had his hands on her, and he’s learned that she likes the tease. Ben generally likes what happens when she finally breaks, so he’s totally fine with using his lips and hands to give her not quite enough. It’s defining the line _after_ she pushes back that’s the problem.

“Shit,” he hisses when Rey grinds down on him. He’s been hard for a while, and he might actually go insane if something doesn’t get done about it soon. Rey is either aware of that, and evil, or she’s somehow missed the fact that that’s his cock she’s pressed up against, because she just continues, hips moving like she knows what she’s doing, but her mouth and hands preoccupied with kissing the fuck out of him. She comes back up from where she’d been mouthing at his jaw, bites his lip, tugging on his hair at the base of his skull, and Ben can’t take it.

“Okay,” he says, panting. “While I don’t want to go jack off in the woods, I’m either gonna need to do that or you’re going to have to give me a break.”

Rey shifts, and Ben is pretty sure she’s not consciously moving her hips like that. Or she’s evil, but he’s fairly certain if either of them was going to be evil, it’d be him. She looks conflicted for a moment and then starts taking her shirt off.

“Not what I had in mind,” Ben says blankly, watching her go for the clasps at the back of her bra. “But do go on, I think you’ve got something here.”

Rey laughs and, of all things, chucks her bra at his face. If that was supposed to keep him from being turned on, it’s not working at all.

“I said I didn’t want to have sex in your car,” Rey says, “but that doesn’t mean we can’t do other things.”

Ben is one hundred percent certain if he says anything he’s going to fuck it up – he’s good at that – so instead he sits up and turns them so they’re oriented as the seat intended. Seated on his lap, Rey is just a bit taller than him, putting her chest at exactly the right height for him to lean forward and put his mouth on her. So he does.

“ _Ben_.” Rey’s gasp comes out gratifyingly breathless, and his hands dig into her sides before he brings one up to stroke his thumb over the nipple he’s not busy rolling his tongue across. She keeps saying his name, getting more urgent while her hands seem to be restless. One moment she’s pulling his hair, then holding onto his arms, then dragging her nails up his back where her hand’s shoved under the neck of his shirt. Eventually, she starts pulling at it until he draws back enough that she can yank his shirt over his head.

Feeling her pressed fully against his chest is amazing, of course, but it also brings Ben’s thoughts to her jeans still on her and how they’re the _worst thing_ that’s ever happened to him, god. Rey ducks her head for another kiss, mouth soft and her breath coming quick. He’s getting back into the flow of just kissing her, albeit with less clothes than normal, when she retreats a centimeter, drags her nose against his and says, “Take off your pants.”

There has never in his life been an order Ben wants to follow more. He might actually have pulled something racing for his fly, but it really doesn’t matter right now. Rey has scooted back so she’s perched on his knees, and when he starts to shove his jeans down, she relocates and pushes at him until he’s sprawled half sideways across the seat and then slaps his hands away.

She can’t be comfortable in the position she’s in, but Ben can’t find it in himself to do anything but stay quiet and let her do what she wants. Evidently, what she wants is to have his pants around his thighs and her face dangerously close to his cock. He can deal with this. He can totally deal with this. He’s had plenty of girls go down on him before, he can even be polite about it if he wants to.

“I’ve only done this once before,” Rey says a little apologetically, glancing up at him with her hand on his dick.

He can’t deal with this. Ben is going to be disgracefully uncool about it, because Rey is _perfect_ and he cares about her and she’s going to blow him. If he dies now, Ben couldn’t be happier.

Lies, he lied. The first touch of her tongue almost makes him swallow his own. Dying before getting to experience this would be a goddamn tragedy. It’s a little obvious that Rey is new to this, she doesn’t quite cover her teeth and she gets too ambitious once and has to pull back. Ben has to bite down on a slightly hysterical laugh when she does, glaring at his dick like she can’t believe it has the audacity to be uncooperative. Instead, he ends up moaning like the mess he is when she tries again and manages to get him all the way down her throat for a few seconds.

Ben can tell when she starts to get the hang of what she’s doing because she starts playing with her tongue. Ben slams his hand against the back of the seat when she does this flickering thing and she fucking _laughs_.

“Rey, fuck,” he hisses urgently. “Shit, I’m gonna come.”

There’s a second’s pause before Rey apparently decides that’s fine so long as she gets to hold his hand, because she laces his fingers with hers and keeps going.

Ben’s vaguely aware he babbles through his orgasm, almost positive it was fifty percent cursing, fifty percent telling Rey she’s amazing. She stays where she is until he’s oversensitive and clenching his teeth against the way the lightest brush of her lips is too much. Rey climbs up to straddle him again, holding herself up so he’s gazing up at her from where his head’s tipped back. She has the most smug little smirk on her face and Ben absolutely can’t stop himself from kissing it.

She tastes a little like she just sucked his dick, and it’s kind of gross and kind of amazing, and Ben is pretty sure both his brain and spine are currently out of business.

“Oh my god,” he manages to breathe against her lips. “Can I do you next?”

Rey giggles, which is ridiculous, and Ben feels his chest seize up a bit, which is even more ridiculous.

“Maybe another day,” she says. “For now, I think you should take me home. Granddad might actually institute a curfew if I’m out much longer.”

“Okay.” He presses a kiss against the center of her chest before moving to pull his jeans back up, mourning the loss of her breasts when she grabs for her bra. God willing, he’ll get to see them again. He’s got his shirt on his arms, over his head when she moves, trapping his arms where they are and leaning in to give him an absolutely filthy kiss, punctuated by a moan that had to have been on purpose.

“Next time, I pick where we go,” she tells him. Ben’s really in no position to do anything but agree.


	3. A Little More Touch Me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> I hope you're prepared for more of this, cause we're not done yet!

“Where are you taking me?”

Ben’s been driving for fifteen minutes, and they’ve made the transition to shitty back roads a couple of minutes ago. He would be suspicious Rey’s directing him to the sketchy site of his own murder, but that’d be way out of character, and Ben hasn’t even pissed her off really in the past week or so.

“Somewhere special,” she tells him, grinning like she’s got a great secret. Granted, wherever they’re going is a secret, but Ben still feels wary about this trip based on that smile.

“’Somewhere special’ she says,” he grumbles under his breath. “Are you going to tell me anything more than that?”

“Nope,” she says cheerfully, popping the P at the end. He scowls, but Rey just leans in and puts her hand on his thigh, a few inches above his knee, and his annoyance evaporates.

“I promise you’ll like it though.”

A few dozen potholes later, and one _turn left here_ , Ben is pulling up in front of a gate that reads Jakku Junk Company. The look he gives Rey when he sees it may not fully convey his disdain, but he’s giving it his best shot.

“What?” she says at his look, laughing in spite of herself. “No, it’s a good surprise, I swear.”

“We’re at a junkyard, Rey,” Ben says flatly. “I know we met next to a dumpster, but this is fucking ridiculous.”

“Shut up.” She swats him on the arm, laughing. “Just drive forward until I tell you. Go slow.”

He rolls his eyes, but obeys, because Ben is tragically whipped. Hux and Phasma don’t hesitate to point it out to him at any given opportunity, but he’s not honestly bothered about it. He knows he can kick Hux’s ass six ways to Sunday (he’s done it before), and Phasma has taken a liking to Rey. He’s fairly certain she’d be with Finn and Poe in the charge to kick his ass if he ever broke Rey’s heart.

So far he’s managed to avoid that. It’s not as much effort as he thought to maintain a girlfriend, but Rey makes it easy. She doesn’t hesitate to tell him when he’s being a particular jackass, and actually thinks he’s funny, and she puts up with his shitty music, even likes some it. Ben has learned all about her art projects and how she can’t decide if she wants to follow sculpture or be a mechanic. She doesn’t have her own car, but she’s taught Ben how to change his oil and brakes, and what a spark plug and an alternator are supposed to look like.

She’s also taught him how to apologize. Neither of them is perfect, and they clash, but it’s never as much as they get along. And even when they’re snapping at each other, Ben’s never sorry he asked her out (or that she asked him out, they can never agree). They’ve really only had one big fight, and Ben doesn’t like to remember it, the way he’d regretted it immediately and felt his stomach drop out at the thought that Rey might actually leave him and never look back.

Ben’s never had a less comfortable nights’ sleep than camped out on Rey’s porch, but when her grandfather had come out with coffee to shake him awake, he’d been sure it was the right choice. Rey came out to shout at him some more a half hour later, but they’d made up in the end.

And now she was taking him to a junkyard. Ben may not be the biggest fan of some parts of his life, but now that Rey’s in it, at least it’s not boring.

“Pull over here!” she shouts suddenly, excited, and Ben whips the wheel around to pull over next to the skeleton of a Toyota. Most of the yard is cars, the occasional washing machine, and other busted up metal machinery breaking up the monotony.

“Come on.”

Rey hops out, speed-walking around the front of his car, and Ben heaves a deep sigh before following her. She pauses to hold out her hand and waits until he’s holding it before tugging him along what must be some kind of familiar path to her.

“If you’re planning on killing me and dumping my body in a scrapyard,” Ben says, “you are the worst girlfriend ever. Of all time.”

Rey snorts and looks back at him over her shoulder.

“I’m not gonna murder you, you dweeb.” She squeezes his hand and Ben begrudgingly believes her. “This is an important place for me. I get most of my materials from this lot. Mr. Plutt basically lets me have run of the place if I bring him anything that’s worth reselling.”

“Alright,” Ben says slowly. He’s willing to believe the heaps of garbage are important to her, but they really could have just driven through it if she wanted to show him her scavenging grounds.

“Just trust me,” Rey says when she sees the dubious look on his face.

Eventually, she brings him to the hulking body of a school bus backed up against what looks like a mountain of similarly sized vehicles, all covered in so much dust the windows are opaque. He pulls up short when Rey opens the door and starts pulling him inside.

“We’re gonna get crushed in there,” he says decisively. Death by old car avalanche is absolutely not how Ben Solo is going out. He loves her, but no way.

“Didn’t I just tell you to trust me?” Rey levels him with a look, eyebrows raised like she expects better of him than to hesitate when asked to go into an unstable-looking pile of cars in some godforsaken junkyard. Like that’s totally unreasonable.

“You know, trust only goes so far,” he says, following her inside anyway. “If you keep secrets from me, I’m going to- whoa.”

Ben stops short and Rey lets their hands drop so she can move to stand in the center of the…room? It’s an open space at least as large as his bedroom, with a corridor here and there winding off like this is some sort of warren made of steel and spare parts. Rey has her arms spread proudly, and Ben realizes after a moment that she _built_ this place.

“Well?” she asks, and it’s only then he can see she’s slightly nervous. “What do you think?”

“Rey, you made this?” He’s still a bit busy looking around at everything. “This is amazing.”

Aside from walls and a roof that slopes up from the top of the bus to rise a good seven feet up, Rey has the place decked out with a table and single chair, tools scattered on the tabletop, as well as a couch covered in a drop cloth, a series of cubbies half filled with scraps, and a huge metal box that might have been some kind of locker once. On second glance, Ben spots dried flowers in a tiny vase on the table and determinedly doesn’t laugh. She’d take it the wrong way.

“Thanks,” Rey says, a small, softly pleased smile on her lips. “It’s my home away from home. I’ve been working on it for years.”

“I can tell.” Ben joins her in the center of the room, hands slipping around her waist while he keeps gawking at the ceiling, where he can see the tracks of clumsy welding. How did she get _up there_?

“Alright,” he concedes when he can _feel_ her grinning up at him. “This is a pretty cool place. You win.”

“I love hearing you say that,” Rey says. She stretches up to press a light kiss under his jaw and Ben hums under his breath. It’s warmer in here than outside, the metal trapping heat while the weak sun of a fading winter doesn’t give off much in the first place. Ben’s willing to concede the hoodie he’s wearing when Rey’s pushes her hands under the shoulders of it, her mouth on his.

Let it never be said Ben can’t take a hint. Rey tugs his hoodie off and keeps kissing him, hands resting on the sides of his neck while she presses forward further into his space, and Ben remembers there’s definitely a couch nearby. He slips his hands over Rey’s back and under her ass to lift her into his arms, because he can and because she likes it. She’s light enough he can carry her over to the couch.

He expects it to throw up a cloud of dust when he drops her onto it, following her down, but Rey must keep the space pretty tidy, because all that happens is she sinks a little into the cushions and makes a satisfied noise against his lips. Shockingly, it’s one of the better locations they’ve used for making out. Both of them live with parents who tend to be home at the same hours as Rey and Ben, making privacy pretty much a joke, and there’s absolutely no way to make Ben’s long limbs fit with hers in close contact in his car. If Rey were even remotely into the party scene, Ben’s sure they could find more opportunities to sneak off, but she hates it.

For once, they have all the time in the world and Ben can’t imagine anyone else is crazy enough to be wandering around a junkyard on a Sunday afternoon, let alone have any desire to explore the guts of an old school bus. So he’s in no rush.

In the weird, filtered light, Ben looks up at her, watching Rey’s head tip back, biting her bottom lip while he bites down on her collarbone. There’s something about the skin over her shoulders and throat that he can’t ever leave alone. Thankfully, Rey lets him explore as much as he wants, squirming while he drags his lips across her left shoulder, shifting her shirt to the side and kissing the spot where her bra cuts into her skin before tugging the strap to ask for permission.

Rey scrambles, wiggling her shirt up her body without dislodging him. He puts his hands on her stomach as she goes, thumbs pressing in toward her navel. His hands span the entirety of her waist, he could touch his thumbs together if he spread his fingers a bit. Instead, he drags them down while she pulls her shirt up, coming to rest on her hip bones.

Her head pops free of her shirt, sharp grin on her face and her hair dislodged a bit from her ever present buns. Ben laughs when she chucks her shirt away without looking.

“Did you bring me here to make out in your hideyhole?” he teases, leaning down to kiss her. Shortly enough she makes a face at him and drags him back down for a much longer version.

“I sure did,” she says, unabashedly proud of herself. “Not just that though.”

Her hand goes for her pocket, so Ben moves his leg out of her way. He’s mildly curious until she puts a condom packet in his hand, and then he’s pretty sure he looks scandalized for the first time in his life.

“Are you _serious?_ ” he hisses out. He likes a lot of things about Rey, don’t get him wrong, but occasionally, she does something like this and Ben has to ask himself if he’s possibly dating a crazy person.

“Very,” she says. And then she unclips her bra and drops it on the floor, which is. Just not playing fair. At all. Ben is trying to be a thoughtful person, dammit.

“Rey, listen to me.” The statement probably has less authority with his hands on her breasts, but so be it. He can’t look at her, topless and smiling under him, and have any kind of conversation.

“We are in a _scrap heap_ ,” he says. “A very nice scrap heap, but a scrap heap. You don’t want to have sex in a scrap heap.”

He’s repeating himself, but Ben has this thing where he gets stupid when Rey gets naked. It’s dirty pool, and he falls for it every single time. He hasn’t even actually slept with her yet, it’s totally unfair that all she has to do is take off her shirt or push down her jeans and Ben’s gone.

“I do, actually,” she tells him, taking one of his wrists in her hand and bringing it to her mouth. She sucks the tip of his middle finger into her mouth, rolling her tongue against the pad of it, and Ben doesn’t even bother trying to tell his dick to calm down.

“This is _my_ place, Ben,” she says quietly when she releases his fingers, putting his hand over her ribs instead. “It’s where I feel comfortable. I love it, and I love _you_ , and I want you to fuck me.”

Ben outright groans. When he kisses her, it’s hard and not even a little romantic. To be honest, he’s kind of pissed. There’s some lingering part of him that calls itself a gentleman that can’t believe she’s asking him to do this. He won’t say it out loud, even under pain of death, but Ben wants to give Rey _everything_. He wants her first time to be something to remember, like his wasn’t. He even kind of wishes he was the kind of guy to go for flowers and candles and, fucking, flavored lube or something, because Rey deserves better than him. She certainly deserves better than this.

Rey makes a strangled noise in the back of her throat, and then they’re fighting over the kiss. They do that sometimes, lips and teeth and tongues moving not just for the pleasure of it, but to prove a point. Rey yanks on his hair and takes advantage when his mouth drops open to practically assault him. It’s fast and messy, and Ben gives as good as he gets, and when Rey drops her head back, fingers still buried in the hair at the nape of his neck, they’re both panting.

“I _want_ this,” she insists. “And if you don’t, that’s fine, but don’t give me some bullshit about not being special enough.”

Ben glares, but doesn’t say anything.

“You wanna remind me again where you lost _your_ virginity?” she snaps. “Because if I recall, you don’t actually remember.”

“That’s because it didn’t matter!” he says, voice raised but not to yelling. Yet. “At least there was an actual bed involved.”

“What,” she starts, rolling her eyes at him. “Did you think we’d, I dunno, rent a hotel after prom like every other person and fulfill the high school cliche?”

He doesn’t say anything, just glares harder at a spot above her right shoulder, and he can see her face soften after a second.

“Oh, Ben.” She sighs, lets go of his hair to stroke her hand down his shoulder until she’s got a loose hold on his bicep. “That’s sweet, but that’s not what I want.”

“I want _you_ ,” she insists, fingers curling around his arm and eyes intent. “If I wanted roses and fairy tales, I wouldn’t be with you. I like that you push me and argue, and how you treat me better than anyone else. And maybe that’s bad, but it’s true. I want you just like you are, Ben.”

He’s not getting emotional, because that’s stupid, but he’s maybe listening, which is like showing positive emotions for him. So close enough.

“I want you frustrated and still willing to give me this,” Rey goes on, her tone dropping incrementally. “Self-righteous as all hell with something to prove, and you’re going to fuck me on this couch because I want it, and it’s my choice, and you love me.”

Rey laughs, low and soft. “Who else is gonna respect me enough to think I deserve better, but give me what I _know_ I deserve to get anyway?”

“Fuck you,” Ben mutters, head dropped onto her shoulder. He ignores her when she giggles and quips _that’s the plan_ , in favor of dragging his forehead over to rest between her collarbones so that he’s staring down at her breasts and stomach and the line of her jeans and his unwavering erection where her legs are wrapped around him.

“Fine,” he huffs after a second. “It’s your virginity, lose it however you want.”

“Now you’re getting with the program,” she almost manages to get out before he’s nipping at her lower lip and her speech halts. He runs his tongue over the same spot, tucking the condom into his back pocket to free up his hands.

“Not where I wanted that to go,” Rey says in a garbled mess while refusing to stop kissing him. He pulls back anyway, shucking off his shirt and resettling a little lower.

“Patience, young padawan,” he teases, and Rey rolls her eyes at him. “You got to pick the location, but I think I’m a little more experienced than you with this. So just relax and follow my lead.”

He presses an open mouthed kiss to the edge of her right breast, hands going for the button on her jeans. He admittedly gets a little distracted, spends more time than he’d intended toying with her nipple, humming against her skin when she whines and pushes up into his mouth. She may not be overly endowed, but Ben loves Rey’s tits. Loves how they fit her and how sensitive she is there, how she flushes slowly all the way down her chest if he spends enough time on her.

“Let me make you feel good,” he says, quiet against her jawline when he gets there. It’s a line, yeah, but he means it. If nothing else, he’s good at this by virtue of practice alone, and he’s hell bent on making her introduction to sex amazing. Certainly, he can do that much right.

Rey’s jeans give up the ghost, and Ben follows them down as he slides them off her legs, dropping kisses against her hips, thighs, the inside of her knee, the curve of her ankle. If he didn’t know she’d planned this from the get-go, her panties would have given it away. Rey owns a grand total of two pairs of sexy underwear, to his knowledge, and this is his favorite. They’re white and lacy, a bit old fashioned so they ride high on her hips and low in the center, and it’s inescapably cliche that he’s taking her virginity in white lace underwear, but Rey’s more shoving her virginity at him than he is taking anything. Maybe that makes up for the cliche somehow.

Either way, the fabric is pretty and thin enough against her skin that Ben can’t resist, so he ducks down and presses his mouth between her legs, lips open so his breath comes out heavy and warm. Rey squirms, knees kicking up and giving him more space to work with. He’s only been able to go down on her a couple of times, but she goes crazy for it, just like Ben hoped she would. It’s no different this time, Rey pressing up on one hand to help him get her underwear off as soon as fucking possible. He has the vague hope they don’t get lost or something, because Ben’s not paying attention to much besides getting his mouth on her.

She sighs at the first touch of his tongue, shifting back slowly while her hips rise. Ben manages to get his palm under the curve of her ass for leverage and peeks up along her body.

-

Rey doesn’t even think about closing her eyes, they just drifted shut of their own accord, automatic as she focuses on the sensations of Ben’s lips and tongue on her. She’s seen him violent and physical and the way he sometimes manhandles her gets her going, but this is different. Ben’s mouth is the softest place on him, Rey knew it just looking at him, and he knows how to use it.

One hand holding her hips up, the other playing over her left thigh, Ben makes a low rumbling noise against her, _into_ her, and Rey can’t breathe. It’s almost too much, the way he can make her feel, but the loss of control is worth it. Rey couldn’t for the life of her keep track of anything beyond one slick, fizzy _yes_ until he slides one finger inside her, the tip of his tongue pressed to her clit.

She almost sits up at that. They've done plenty of things together, and she’s even had his finger in her before, but it’s different with the knowledge that he’s getting her ready for more. Eyes open, she stares down at him between her legs and swallows hard.

“Don’t,” he says, retreating a few inches, and Rey hysterically wants to hiss the same thing at him. “You’re thinking, stop that.”

“Oh, hush,” she snaps. “Maybe if you were doing better, I wouldn’t be thinking so much.”

He frowns at that and presses up and in, making her inhale sharply as it sends a heavy sort of flutter through her.

“I thought you said you feel comfortable here.”

“I _am_ ,” Rey insists, thinking it’s absurd they’re still discussing whether or not she’s _comfortable_ while he’s fingering her.

“Well, get more comfortable,” he grumbles. “You’re thinking about the endgame, not the moment, and it’s kinda killing it for me. So could you just chill out and ride my face?”

Rey blinks rapidly a few times. He does that sometimes, tosses out phrases that feel dirty to her like they’re nothing. Sometimes it makes her feel inadequate in comparison, inexperienced and fumbling, but mostly it makes her think about how he knows what he’s doing and he’s doing it for _her_.

“Yeah, alright,” she says quietly, and she gets a short nod before he dives back in. She keeps her eyes open this time, watching him lap at her, nose brushing her pubic bone. The sight is almost as good as the feeling, but that wins out when he meets her eye for a moment, then closes his and _groans_ and she can feel it all over like bubbles in champagne.

She’s flat out on her back after that, writhing, and she loses track of time. She doesn’t think about what he's doing, only feeling it, one hand trapped in his hair and her hips bucking up. He has two fingers in her before she notices, and then it’s _very_ noticeable when he spreads them slightly and presses up again.

Rey can feel her thighs shaking, but there’s not a thing she can do about it. Ben’s watching her, she can feel it, even if she can’t get her spine to cooperate so she can look at him. His attention is an almost physical weight, and it has her spiraling higher too fast.

“Waitwaitwait.” It’s a babbled noise more than anything, but Ben backs off easily when she tugs at his hair, fingers stilling inside her.

“What?” he asks urgently. “You okay?”

“Yeah,” Rey gasps, breathless. “I’m just gonna come.”

“Great,” Ben says slowly, all seriousness leaving his face. “That’s sorta the goal?”

“No, I don’t-” She has no idea how to articulate what she wants, not helped by the fact she’s ridiculously wet, not just from his tongue, and her body wants the orgasm she can almost taste, _badly_.

“Talk to me, babe,” he says after Rey’s spent a few moments trying to catch her breath and then promptly losing it every time she clenches up a little around him.

“I get all...tight, after,” she finally says haltingly. “You should get in me before I come.”

Ben gives her a frustrated look and sits back a little, his arm stretched out so he can keep his hand where it is, his thumb moving to brush just barely against her clit.

“Okay, I want to tell you it’s cool,” he starts. “I promise we can just build you back up, but honestly, I’m probably gonna come if you do, and that might take a little longer to recover from.”

“So,” he goes on, dipping so his body presses against her bit by bit, “if you think you’re ready now?”

He’s as close to her as he can get, his lower belly resting where his hand is cupped over and inside her. She can feel him hard against her thigh, and her own are still shaking slightly. The tiny thrust he makes while he’s waiting for her answer almost sets her off, and it explodes out of her.

“Yes! Please,” she says on her next breath. Her hands claw into his shoulders when he ducks his head, muttering curses and biting under her jaw. His right hand stays where it is while his left fumbles with his jeans, yanks the condom out of his pocket and wiggles them off his hips in a move that’s entirely unsexy, but makes Rey light up anyway.

He rips the package open with his teeth, and Rey might laugh at him if he hadn’t picked up the motion of his other hand again, fingers thrusting inside her slow and deep while his thumb circles.

“You tell me to stop if you need to, alright?” He’s a little breathless himself, jerking against his own hand as he rolls the condom on.

“Kiss me, Ben,” she says in place of a confirmation. He does, of course, he always gives her what she wants if she asks. She can’t taste herself like she thought she might, but she can feel the slickness on his lips and shivers.

It turns into a full body shudder when he pulls his fingers out and presses his dick there instead. He’s not inside her yet, just a pressure between her legs, tantalizing and a little intimidating, until Rey takes the initiative and pushes back against him.

She’s not sure who makes the louder noise when he slides inside, but she’s the one who starts talking and can’t seem to stop.

“Oh god,” she says, and it’s not so much speech as breathing. “I can’t...Ben, please, keep going.”

He doesn’t answer in words, hauling her leg up so it rests at his ribcage and spreading her wide so he can sink all the way inside her. It’s not amazing yet, but Rey can feel it coming in the way pressure and heat fills her - it will be.

“ _Ben.”_ Rey can’t quite stop saying his name. “Ben, move, I need-”

“I know,” he says, mouth open and panting against hers. “Give me a second.”

Rey watches him take a deep breath, hands linking around the back of his neck while she breathes open mouthed against his cheek, dizzy. When he releases that breath, he pulls back a few inches, then he fucks back into her and Rey is _gone._

Because of their height difference, Ben’s entire body curls over her and Rey is more than happy to take it, his arms holding her steady, his cock driving into her at a pace that makes her breath stall. Breathless or not, she finds the air to keep gasping at him, mindless requests for more, harder, until his hips are snapping against her almost painfully, and Rey’s head tips back, her nails digging into the skin at his lower back. He switches it up after a few moments, pulling back and staying there until Rey scrambles at his skin, on the verge of yelling at him to _come back._

He does before she can do more than shoot him a furious look, grinning like the cocky ass he is before pushing forward, slow so she can feel the stretch, and grinding his hips down against her. It puts him at just the right angle to put pressure on her clit, and Rey is so so glad her boyfriend used to be a bit of a slut. One day, down the road, she might be able to ask him for the things she wants, but until then, it’s a blessing Ben can give it to her without her having to even know she wants it.

He keeps doing that, pulling back so he’s only barely inside her every so often, but never predictably. It keeps her on edge and Rey is about ready to scream when he shifts, catching both her legs under the knees, and fucks her in earnest. They’re both sweaty, Rey probably a moaning mess, while Ben seems sharpened, focused and tense, and she can feel his legs shaking against hers.

He makes a broken noise when Rey starts to come around him.

“Don’t stop,” she repeats a few times until he gets the idea, hips jerking against her just right while she climaxes. Her hand flies down to press against herself where they meet, no movement but the pressure perfect so she feels drawn out, thin and light and bursting.

She might say his name at the peak of it, but all she can be certain of is it was _loud,_  because her throat hurts sharply for a moment when she comes down. Ben is still where he rests inside her, panting and bright-eyed.

“Can I?” he says with a small movement of his hips that’s almost too much.

“Yes,” Rey hisses. He collapses forward, propped on one arm above her, and it’s only a handful of erratic, frantic thrusts before his back bows and Rey knows he’s coming inside her. She’d thought she might be able to feel it, but all she feels is the constant heat of him, the way his arms are shaking around her, his face contorted the same way it always is when he orgasms.

Ben rolls them onto their sides, holding her to him and scattering kisses all over her face and neck. Rey catches his lips after a couple tries, hands framing his face so he’ll be still for it. She strokes her tongue over his lower lip, pulls it into her mouth for a heartbeat, and then lets him go.

“Good?” he asks, breath coming hard. He’s flushed across his cheeks and ears, his eyes caught halfway between sleepy and focused. It might be the endorphins talking, but Rey thinks he’s beautiful.

“Very good,” she tells him. “I think my ears are ringing.”

Ben laughs, presses a kiss to her forehead. 

“Hopefully that’s a good sign."

The aftermath is a little gross and uncomfortable, the sensation of Ben’s dick leaving her extremely odd. She makes him get up and throw the used condom outside, because while he’s right that it’s a dump anyway, Rey’s not having it in her space. He yanks his underwear on when he comes back, and crowds her against the back of the couch to kiss her some more.

It’s lazy and warm and if they weren’t on a couch in Rey’s scrap castle, she could easily fall asleep here with Ben’s arms and legs tangled with hers. As it is, she’s aware they should probably be going soon, but there’s a distinct longing for being able to do this all the time. To share a space and a bed with him, to fall asleep and wake up together. But she’s sixteen and he’ll be leaving for college next year, and she knows nothing’s for certain.

  
Still, Rey knows she’ll never look back on this with regret, so she runs her fingers through his hair, seizes the moment and stays in it for as long as she can.


	4. Miss Missing You

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Now that Ben's gone off to college, Rey's picked up some pretty pathetic habits while missing him.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Written for the 'guitar pick' prompt for Wickedly Wonderful Week of Reylo. I had to come back to my babies, if only for a short jaunt.

It’s the stupidest thing in the world, because Rey doesn’t really wear jewelry, but she has a necklace with one of Ben’s guitar picks on it, and it hasn’t left her neck since he headed east for college. It gets in her way all the time, dangling inconveniently off her neck and getting caught in her hair and generally being the perfect reminder that Ben isn’t around. That was sort of the point at least – to have a reminder of him, just in case Rey found herself thinking she must have built them up in her head. Ben had made her promise to call or text him any time, even if it was for something dumb, but Rey doesn’t want to interrupt him while he’s at school. Certainly not when it took so much convincing to get him there.

Rey’s still kind of kicking herself, because what kind of girlfriend practically forces her boyfriend to go all the way across the country for school? Especially when she genuinely can’t go with him. Rey used to forget Ben’s two years older than her, but it’s glaringly obvious when she’s in her junior year at high school and Ben is a freshman at Julliard. And how crazy is _that_? He got into Julliard of all places and wasn’t going to go because of some harebrained ideas about having to ‘earn it’ with a band.

Ben is so much better than the idiots he spent his time with in high school, and Rey hopes he’s starting to see that now that he’s a bit more out in the world. She also hopes Ben hasn’t managed to figure out Rey is about as small town as it gets and he can do better. Well. He could, if he stopped being an ass to people for more than five minutes at a time. He’d almost had it down with Poe, the two of them managing to form a friendship Rey never saw coming, while Finn and Ben still give each other a wide berth. That probably won’t ever change, but Rey’s accepted it. At least Ben finally listened to her about his stupid Knights of Ren.

It wasn’t even a really good band name, honestly. The Knights of Ren sounds like some terrible, cliché hardcore metal band, and that’s exactly what they’d been: terrible and cliché. Ben was the only talent in the whole bunch, writing all the lyrics and most of the music himself, but as brilliant as Ben is, he can’t play the drums and guitar and bass at the same time, and his voice didn’t exactly lend itself to fronting a band. But Rey had finally managed to nag him into letting her read his music and it was pretty damn amazing.

Some of it isn’t amazing, and that’s mainly what Ben had shared with his band. Rey had rightly pointed out that maybe it ought to tell him something that he’d never shared his best work with the band he’s trying to say he’s planning a future with. It had been the start of a very big fight that had only ended when Rey woke up the next day to her grandfather and Ben sharing cups of coffee on the front porch, Ben looking haggard and sorry. It was never about the stupid band, it was that he was afraid to leave, afraid of what might happen to him on his own, what might happen to them if they were apart. And Rey could understand that, but it’s no reason to throw away his future. Especially not when Rey and so many other people would kill to have parents who can pay for it and the talent to get into a school like god damn Julliard.

“Ow, shit.” Rey only realizes she’s playing with her necklace when the sharp edge of the wire wrapped through it catches on her skin. A small drop of blood beads up on her thumb and Rey absently sticks it in her mouth. She doesn’t have time for a bandage or anything, and it’d only get in her way in any case. The sculpture she’s working on involves too much fine detail for her thumb being all clumsy.

It’s an abstract work, inspired by Ben, thus her dwelling thoughts. She’s been collecting trashed CDs for weeks now, and she finally has enough with an acceptable level of diversity to do what she has planned. Rey has never made a mosaic before, so why not start with an abstract one made of sharp-edged parts and tiny bits of welding all over the place? Clearly Rey is some kind of touched.

At least it looks alright so far. Or, well…it does from one angle. From an entirely different view, it looks exactly like the hot mess it actually is. She’s working on it.

Rey reaches up to toy with her necklace again, eyes tracing over the whorls and reflections, and thinks about calling Ben anyway. It’s the middle of the afternoon, so hopefully he doesn’t have classes, but Rey can never keep his schedule straight in her head. She has it written on a piece of paper tacked to her bedroom wall, but that does her no good while she’s working in the backyard.

It’s stupid – almost as stupid as the necklace she can’t make herself take off. Rey talked to him yesterday, and they hadn’t even been in this much regular contact when Ben had lived a short drive or a long walk away. Now that he’s in New York, Rey can’t seem to stop thinking about him and texting him practically every waking hour. She’d promised herself she was going to devote some real time to working on her project today, but all she can seem to do is think about Ben.

She misses the casual togetherness the most, Rey thinks, giving up and walking inside for a drink. She and Ben had never been really big on the classic dates or overt romantic gestures, though there were times when they could be just as sappy as the next couple. Perhaps not as much and Finn and Poe, but their level is one that is rarely achieved and even less often sustained, though the boys manage it somehow. What Rey misses is how she and Ben spent hours doing nothing together. The times when Ben would be in his own world while Rey banged on a busted old car, reading quietly in a patch of shade. When Rey fell asleep during a movie and woke up with her head in Ben’s lap and made him tell her everything she’d missed instead of just rewinding the film.

And to think, they’d started out by shouting at each other. Rey still has to pause for a fond look at the back corner of the school where the old dumpster sits, though there’s no Ben leaning against it these days. He’s on to bigger and better things, and god willing, he’ll still want Rey even though she’s nothing special.

Maybe that’s what she’s getting at with this piece. Rey fiddles with a glass of lemonade, staring out at the half-started project taking up a good third of the backyard and scaring away the birds with flashes of light. It’s something new and eye-catching and possibly dangerous (at least for her hands) and it feels like it’s the right thing to do when she’s pushed Ben to go away to college when she knew how anxious he was over the whole thing. From what he’s told her, it’s completely different from home. A crush of people all the time, he said, with everyone thinking they’re going to be the next big thing.

It’s tiring, he’d told her, hushed when it was long after either of them should have been asleep. It’s tiring trying to be the next big thing and live the dream. Ben thinks maybe he’ll be fine with not making it big. Maybe writing is good enough for him, and Rey’s chest had swelled with pride at the careful way he’d tried out accepting something he wasn’t sure about, the way Ben always stumbles over things that are right for him.

Fingers tapping against the glass, Rey bites her lip and decides pride and restraint are for people whose boyfriends aren’t thousands of miles away. She’s halfway to her room, intent on checking his schedule for the next time she can call him without it being the middle of a class, when her phone goes off.

“Hello?” Rey says, the automatic questioning tone of answering a phone even though she knows exactly who it is by his custom ringtone, recorded just for her.

“Hey.” Ben’s voice filters over the phone, deep and a little breathless like he’s been rushing somewhere. “You busy?”

“Not really,” Rey says, a smile already overtaking her face. She keeps going toward her bedroom, falling backward onto her bed and settling in for another long conversation – they don’t seem to have any other kind these days. “I was art-ing, but I’m taking a break anyway.”

Ben hums over the phone and Rey can hear the faint noises of him shuffling around like he’s settling too.

“Why?” she asks, a little teasing. “Did you miss me or something?”

“Brat.” Ben laughs over the phone, soft and private and living with a roommate who could come into his dorm at any time has taught him how to regulate his volume if nothing else. “You know I miss you all the time.”

“Me too, babe.” Rey’s fingers drift up, pressing the tips to the rough edge of the grip on the guitar pick hanging between her collarbones. “Me too.”


End file.
